Climate: Rich must help poor
2008-10-20 08:30
Manila - Developed countries are obligated to help poorer nations cope with disasters that may be exacerbated by climate change, a UN-sponsored gathering of legislators in the Philippines said on Saturday.
The meeting, sponsored by the UN International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), also called on countries to take pre-emptive steps to make communities less vulnerable to disaster instead of just reacting to such calamities.
"Industrial countries have a historical responsibility for climate change and are morally obligated to financially and technologically assist developing countries in their efforts to reduce their vulnerability and adapt," to the situation, the legislators said in a concluding statement.
"It is the obligation of developed countries to help us," said Philippine Senator Loren Legarda, co-convenor of the meeting.
She remarked that despite the global financial turmoil, "there are funds for climate change," especially if developed nations pooled their aid resources.
UNISDR director Salvano Briceno said that despite the financial crisis, "we still have to address the other global challenges".
Legarda said foreign aid agencies "have actually told us, 'we have funds we need to spend. Give us a project'" that concerns climate change.
The legislators' statement also said that climate change was closely linked to the greater damage caused by natural disasters and warned that it was cheaper to make communities safer from such disasters than it was to rebuild them.
Legarda said that even though poor and less industrialised nations such as the Philippines were not major producers of greenhouse gases, they were more vulnerable to the higher sea levels that would result from climate change.